Russell Wilson’s game versus Bills was season’s best among all QBs

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On Sunday in Toronto, against the Bills, Seahawks rookie Russell Wilson put together the best quarterback performance of the season.

Russell Wilson (3) scrambles for a touchdown against the Bills on Sunday in Toronto. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press/AP Photo)

And we’re not talking about just his personal best performance. We’re talking about the best single-game performance this year among all NFL quarterbacks — by one key rating, at least.

In the 50-17 victory Sunday, in which he ran for three touchdowns and added a passing score, Wilson earned a Total Quarterback Rating (QBR) of 99.3 out of 100. It was the best single-game rating yet for any quarterback this season.

Developed by ESPN, total QBR attempts to rate quarterbacks more accurately than the standard “passer rating” statistic used by the NFL. It takes into account situations, not just numbers, so it can reflect how “clutch” a quarterback was or how well he played under pressure, for instance. The average NFL quarterback should be rated at 50.

What underlies QBR is an understanding of how football works and a lot of detailed situational data. What it yields are results that should reflect that. It illustrates that converting on third-and-long is important to a quarterback. It shows that a pass that is in the air for 40 yards is more reflective of a quarterback than a pass that is in the air for 5 yards and the receiver has 35 yards of run after the catch. These premises should sound reasonable to football fans. They come out of a lot of statistical analysis, but they are also consistent with what coaches and players understand.

On Sunday, Wilson was 14-of-23 for 205 passing yards, one touchdown through the air and no interceptions. He earned a passer rating of 104.4, but even more notable was what he did against the Bills with his feet.

Wilson scrambled for 92 rushing yards on nine carries and scored three touchdowns on the ground. His first two came on the Seahawks’ first two possessions, with a 14-yard run and a 25-yard run, giving his team a quick 14-0 lead in the first quarter.

After he tossed a floater to tight end Zach Miller in the end zone to open Seattle’s lead to 24-7, he got his third rushing TD on a 13-yard run that put the Seahawks up 31-7 in the second quarter. Wilson became the first-ever NFL player to pass for one TD and rush for three, and became the first Seattle QB in franchise history to score three rushing touchdowns in a single game.

And he did it all before halftime.

The 99.3 total QBR ranked him first among all NFL quarterbacks for a single game. San Francisco’s Alex Smith had the year’s second-best performance, a 99.2 total QBR, when the 49ers beat Buffalo 45-3 in Week 5.

Here are the top 10 single-game performances as ranked by total QBR this season through Week 15 (before the “Monday Night Football” game).

1.

Russell Wilson, SEA

W 50-17 at Buffalo in Week 15

99.3 total QBR

2.

Alex Smith, SF

W 45-3 v. Buffalo in Week 5

99.2

3.

Tom Brady, NE

W 45-7 at St. Louis in Week 8

98.4

4.

Robert Griffin III, WSH

W 38-26 v. Minnesota in Week 6

97.6

5.

Brady Quinn, KC

W 27-21 v. Carolina in Week 13

97.6

6.

Matt Ryan, ATL

W 40-24 at Kansas City in Week 1

97.5

7.

Colin Kaepernick, SF

W 32-7 v. Chicago in Week 11

97.5

8.

Mark Sanchez, NYJ

W 48-28 v. Buffalo in Week 1

97.1

9.

Cam Newton, CAR

W 30-20 v. Atlanta in Week 14

97.0

10.

Christian Ponder, MIN

W 36-22 at St. Louis in Week 15

96.9

Wilson’s performance versus Buffalo in Toronto also ranked the fourth-best single-game performance since ESPN created total QBR in 2008.

1.

Carson Palmer, CIN

W 45-10 v. Chicago on 10/25/09

99.8 total QBR

2.

Michael Vick, PHI

W 59-28 at Washington on 11/15/10

99.8

3.

Tony Romo, DAL

W 44-7 v. Buffalo on 11/13/11

99.5

4.

Russell Wilson, SEA

W 50-17 at Buffalo on 12/16/12

99.3

5.

Alex Smith, SF

W 45-3 vs. Buffalo on 10/7/12

99.2

6.

Eli Manning, NYG

W 44-6 v. Seattle on 10/5/08

99.1

7.

Carson Palmer, CIN

W 34-20 v. San Diego on 12/26/10

99.0

8.

Ben Roethlisberger, PIT

W 41-9 at Cleveland on 1/2/11

99.0

9.

Jay Cutler, DEN

W 41-14 at Oakland on 9/8/08

98.9

10.

Drew Brees, NO

W 48-27 v. New York Giants on 10/18/09

98.9

And, finally, Wilson jumped into the No. 8 spot among quarterbacks for the entire season.